Palo Alto, CA – Police have arrested a suspect who exposed himself to a woman on a Palo Alto street back in February, in a case where the quick-thinking victim snapped a photo of the suspect as he walked away.

On Monday, February 27, 2017, at about 11:04 a.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call of an indecent exposure that had just occurred in the 100 block of Park Avenue. The victim, a woman in her twenties, had been standing in a parking lot near the corner of Park Avenue and El Camino Real when the suspect passed by her while masturbating his exposed penis. The victim cursed at the suspect as he walked away eastbound on the Park Avenue sidewalk, and then used her phone to take a picture of the suspect from a safe distance as he left. The original news release for the incident is here.

Detectives used the photo taken by the victim to help conduct their follow-up investigation, and eventually identified the suspect as 28-year-old Jonathan Dane Chestnutt of Palo Alto. Detectives sent the case to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office for review, and obtained an arrest warrant for him yesterday charging him with one count of misdemeanor indecent exposure. He was already in custody at the Santa Clara County Main Jail for a separate theft arrest. Police served the warrant on him yesterday while he was in custody. His booking photo is attached to this release.

Detectives have not connected the suspect to any additional indecent exposure cases, either in Palo Alto or surrounding communities.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through our free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.